ORANGE COUNTY -- It’s been a tough year for tourism in Central Florida, but now tourism leaders said they have a new plan.
The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau rolled out Orlando Makes Me Smile Wednesday, a new marketing plan that will rely heavily on social networking.
With attendance numbers dropping and multiple tragedies hitting theme parks hard, there has been little to smile about so far this year.
Stacey Doornbos and Kyle Post are supposed to change all that.
Doornbos and Post, who are from New York City, are the faces of Orlando Makes Me Smile campaign. They'll spend 67 days hitting local attractions and then blog, Twitter and Facebook on their experience.
"Orlando is beautiful. It is a wonderful city,” Doornbos said. “It’s clean. There are so many things to do here and we are just really excited to actually take in over one hundred events."
So far, parks have seen numbers drop by 8 percent. Convention bookings are down even more -- nearly 18 percent -- and next year won't be much better.
Experts predict visitor levels will remain nearly flat while convention bookings drop another 5 percent.
"This has been a challenge for every destination in the country,” said Gary Sain from the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “So we are holding our own, but obviously we are going to be very aggressive in trying to get more business to our destination.”
Drive markets, such as Miami and Atlanta where someone can easily make it down to attractions for a weekend, will be a big focus point.
Ads touting the smile campaign will run on radio, online and in print.
However, the main focus will be on Doornbos and Post and the word of mouth their experiences can bring.
“It's a good way for people to experience what it’s really like. That it’s not some overly produced thing. It’s just two people in Orlando experiencing what we are doing," Post said.
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